Alex Wagner

public critics, journalists, anybody who's out there speaking in an uncensored way about the ills of this president and his allies.

As we think about kind of the stakes, right?

And I'm just listening to this example you cite about literally being afraid for your life as you speak your opinion publicly.

Some people say we are on the brink of authoritarianism, and some people just say we are under the rule of an authoritarian leader.

First of all, do you think the distinction makes a difference?

And where do you think we are?

That is our cold comfort.

I do wonder, though, as we think about the net effect of these years beyond the partisan divide, the kind of chasmic partisan divide, and the isolation and the sense of disassociation within one country.

I wonder about our ability to even determine the truth at the end of it all.

I'm thinking about, I think there was a moment two weeks ago, it's all a blur, when President Trump was tweeting out about Tylenol causing autism.

And you responded saying, how are there no guardrails?

You also mentioned some things about Democrats, but just focus on the guardrail.

I mean, my reaction was cosine, what?

And I wonder what you think the net effect of like this period, I guess, new era, I'm not sure where we are here, of misinformation and calculated disinformation, like where that leaves us as a society, as someone who's interested in words and the truth and meaning, someone who's a professor and is in the industry of teaching people the truth.

What happens when the truth becomes so atomized or fungible?

Alternative facts are not.

There are no alternative facts.

By the way, just a declaration of principles right there.

When Kellyanne Conway said there are alternative facts, everybody should have been listening a little harder.

Here we are.